Blue Tube

[Abbott]

The other day I went out and got a blue tube. There was one thing I couldn't figure out. I have heard all about it's "tube-warmth distortion" for use with harmonicas, guitars... but how can you make a freaking harmonica distort with tube warmth when it destroys the signal going into my four track (the level gets too hot and it starts to crack). What do you do to get this alleged tube warmth distortion with microphones???

 

[ozraves]

The Blue Tube tube warmth is not really tube warmth at all.

It takes some pretty big iron (transformer) to properly drive a tube. Go look at the transformers in a Marshall amp (a tube one). These tube colorization preamps are a plague.

If you want to drive a harmonica, then route the mic through a guitar amp and mic the speaker cab. The 4x10 Fender Bassman is a classic harmonica amp. Less esoteric and less expensive guitar amps will do.

If you want to learn about tube circuits, then you might want to head over to Torres Engineering's website and check out Dan's tube guitar how-to book. A fe small parts of it don't make sense as Dan is not the best writer but it's the best all around tube guitar how-to out there.